The officers then tied him to a chair, stood there, and moved him to another cell, where they lowered him onto a mattress, face down on his stomach.
The officers removed his ankle cuffs and folded his legs behind his back. He begged, “Please,” “I can’t breathe,” “Help me,” and “Let me go,” the report said.
However, officers were unable to remove his handcuffs after a key was broken in the keyhole, another key failed and a set of bolt cutters malfunctioned.
Officers used another set of bolt cutters to remove Mr Neville’s left handcuff after he lay on his stomach for about 12 minutes, the report said. Ms. Heughins checked on him and the group left his cell, with Mr. Neville still on his stomach, according to the report.
After Ms. Heughins failed to see him breathing or moving, the staffers went back into the cell, rolled Mr. Neville onto his back and began CPR, the report said.
Mr. Neville died on December 4, 2019 at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.
The autopsy revealed that he had died of a brain injury resulting from cardiac arrest caused by “positional and compressive asphyxia during abdominal fixation.” The report said Mr Neville had other “major conditions” including “acute altered mental status” and asthma.
In August 2020, a day before officials released videos showing the episode leading to Mr. Neville, Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby F. Kimbrough Jr. apologized to Mr. Neville. Mr Kimbrough said he cried after watching a video of the encounter and said mistakes were made that day. The sheriff’s office said at the time it had fired all five officers.